


The good guy

by boleyn13



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Gen, Loki offers to fix things his way, Not A Fix-It, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 15:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11383080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boleyn13/pseuds/boleyn13
Summary: “So is this the moment where I’m supposed to say ‘I told you so’ or if you prefer something more dramatic I can throw my hands up in the air and scream ‘Why didn’t you listen to me?’”As Tony lies dying in a cold Siberian base, an old acquaintance shows up and offers a unique way to fix things.





	The good guy

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> I wanted to write something and for entire days I couldn't think of anything and then suddenly inspiration stuck me. 
> 
> Here it is - Loki visiting Tony after the events of Civil War, offering to a way to fix things. 
> 
> Have fun :)

“So is this the moment where I’m supposed to say ‘I told you so’ or if you prefer something more dramatic I can throw my hands up in the air and scream ‘Why didn’t you listen to me?’”

Breathing hurt. Not just a little bit. Not the usual soreness after a fight. This was severe pain which was making his lungs burn with every shallow breath that he took. Therefore talking was literally a painful waste of precious oxygen and yet Tony made use of it to weakly call the other one a “Son of a bitch…”

Even to his own ears Tony’s voice sounded strange. Pained, feeble and still there was a hint of relief. How much time had passed? 15 minutes? Hours? Or just a couple of seconds? Tony wasn’t able to tell. What he knew for sure was that he had been alone. On the ice cold floor of this abandoned base, trapped in the armour that was supposed to protect him. Left behind by a person that he had put his trust in.

A horrible moment to be alone. It forced him to think when he only wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep. Terrible idea though. There was a good chance that his lungs had suffered some damage, people shouldn't fall asleep in that condition.

No matter how much he hated to admit it, the thought that he might be dying had crossed his mind. Not quite real yet. Not enough to cause a panic or to start praying. More than enough though to start wondering about things that he might have done wrong. So many of them.

After that undefinable amount of time there had suddenly been that voice. Too familiar to not recognize, but definitely the last one that Tony would have expected. Ever so casually Loki was leaning against one of the columns, watching Tony with intense but strangely calm green eyes.

Of all gin joints of all the town in all the world, right?

Except that everything Loki did, he did on purpose and for a reason. That didn’t make a difference, right now, still on the cold floor Tony felt almost a spark of happiness to see him.

“Now why do I get insulted? By the way – I told you so, didn’t I?” Loki looked like he was merely taking another stroll through the park as he was coming closer. If Tony’s mangled state evoke any kind of emotion within him, positive or negative, he wouldn’t let it show.

Tony opened his mouth and realised in horror that he had to cough. Pain was tearing his lungs apart and tears were rushing to his eyes while Loki merely tilted his head to the side to get a better look at him. Morbid curiosity.

“Oh my… That must hurt.”

Gloating dirtbag and yet he was here. The only one who was here.

Shouldn’t that be the perfect moment for Tony to finally learn to not mistake somebody’s motives for something completely different? In this situation Loki had to be the last person in anybody’s list to come and see you.

Naturally the madman didn’t disappoint. Loki lifted his right foot and nudged Tony with it, like he would do with some unidentifiable object that had washed up on the shore. The pressure on his chest intensified, it felt like the useless metal of his armour was cutting into his skin and far beneath it.

Tony screamed and Loki mockingly clenched his teeth, contorting his face. “How utterly painful. Somebody really enjoyed using blunt violence to create such dents…”

The ache wasn’t actually fading, but it got a little lighter when Loki lifted his foot and Tony wanted to suck in a breath, yet the mere thought was terrifying.

“Okay, asshole… I got it… I’m fucking stupid… Will you… help me… out of the armour now?”

All he needed to do was to click his fingers.

Instead Loki only clicked his tongue. “No, I am not going to do that.”

Something else now joined all that shock, horror and disappointment which Tony was already suffering through. Maybe the actual realisation that he might die here. Murdered like his parents. An entire family wiped out by the same hands. Now that he was trapped in the shell that had been supposed to shield him, now that Tony was paralysed, unable to lash out, Tony could only lie there and take it. Feel it and it was too much. Overwhelming. No point in fighting the tears. Tony sobbed, another stab into his chest. “You damned…”

“When I came down to earth, I brought you guys together, now I’ve left and you are fighting each other. I’m sorry. So sorry.” The childish but still smug glee he said those words with caused Tony to tremble with anger. Everything just to cause him more pain. “You fucking bastard.”

Loki smiled at the insult, unbothered. “I am not going to change anything. The others are going to find you just like this. Because if I let you out of your metal cage, if I should be so endlessly merciful to let you breathe freely… they will not see what has been done. No, I want them to see things as they are and I want you to feel what he meant you to feel. Which is a lot of physical pain. Obviously.”

For a moment Tony was able to tell what exactly he was feeling. Despair. “I’m dying…”

“Dying is something I have experience with. Believe me, you are not. Loss of consciousness is far more likely. I will stick around to make sure. We will talk later.”

The will to scream at him, to curse him wasn’t strong enough to battle the darkness that was coming over him.

 ***

The bedsheets were soft, the smell in the room sweet, not chemical, breathing didn’t cause any more trouble. The weights had been lifted off his chest. Nevertheless Tony felt like his skin had been rubbed raw, every part of his body now hurt in different kind of way. Unfortunately the pain wasn’t as intense anymore and it gave him time to think. To marvel at how his life had collapsed like a house of cards. Now the parts were scattered all over the place and no craftsman could put them back together. Not even in the ugly style of an abstract work of art.

Tony hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights. His thoughts were his only company, so the darkness was just fine. Despite the lack of lights Tony could immediately tell that he wasn’t alone anymore. There had been a time when he had thought that Loki’s presence could make the temperature of the room drop. Exaggerating. Wouldn’t it be so immensely sweet if you could tell the good guys apart from the bad guys that easily?

“Fuck off.”

Determinedly Tony looked at that door or where the door was supposed to be in the darkness. Anywhere but at Loki who was leaning against the window. Like he had done in the Hydra base. Arms crossed in front of his chest, in a leisure pose. Why should he be bothered by any of that?

“Always telling me to leave. Quite the catchphrase.”

“You were just standing there. Cracking jokes while I was dying!”

Loki huffed in amusement. “Because I love being right. Being right at such an impressive scale can be immensely satisfying, but you already know that, don’t you? Man of Iron…”

“You are completely deranged… you didn’t lift a finger to help me.”

The scene replayed itself. Loki casually strolled across the room, not having a simple care that he could give. “Wasn’t that what he asked me to do? To leave? Or to leave you alone? By the sweet Nines, you used so many words, my memorie has trouble to recall all of them. No, I am very convinced that you said ‘Leave and never interfere with our lives again. Does that mean this rule doesn’t apply anymore?”

Always the smartass, so annoying, nerve-racking. So why was there almost a bit of comfort in his words? Because Loki had always been like that. Nothing had changed which should be reassuring. He wouldn’t turn around and stab you in the back… No, Loki would totally do that, but everybody expected it of him… so that made it less horrible?

“Even if you tell a person to stay the fuck away from you… you still hope they will save your life if they find you lying on the floor, bleeding out. It’s basic human decency.”

“I am not human and you were not bleeding out. You are here, alive and we are going to talk.”

Tony had not the slightest intention to do that, but what was the alternative? Lying here alone in the dark with only his thoughts to keep him company? Watching the movie that was playing behind his eyes. The death of his parents all over. Steve admitting that he knew. Sort of knew. Barnes just… standing there.

Was Loki really worse company than that?

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“How sad. I have the most interesting things to say. Give me a second to make myself comfortable.”

Tony tensed as Loki sat down on the edge of the bed as if he was a normal visitor. Nothing was normal about him. “Where was I? Right, after the most recent development… which was so terribly predictable but you still failed to see coming, the tables have turned. How should we proceed now?”

“We, as in the two of us, are not going to do anything. I want you to leave.”

“No, you don’t. Because I know what to do. Because I was right and you know that. You’ve made a bad choice, but sometimes second chances do indeed come around. I may be so gracious to actually offer you an opportunity to change things for the better.”

The smile on his face was almost sweet. Almost sweet. Not enough though, Loki was honest enough to not even try to sell him this kind of bullshit. A gleam of madness that couldn’t be denied. Not that Loki would ever try.

After all that had happened during the last couple of days or even years… Tony still wasn’t ready or willing to go mad. “You are not seriously trying to paint yourself as the good guy here, are you?”

“So it was the good guy that betrayed your trust, repeatedly beat you with the help of the murderer of your parents and left you to die on a rock of ice?” A smile as sweet as poison and Tony bit his lip. What answer was there to give?

Loki took the silence as the triumph that it was and the fact that he was so blatantly happy was making Tony sick. “Why are you even here? To relish the fact that I thought I was doing the right thing? That I believed in something? In something good. In something more important than me? That people… that somebody could actually be willing to lay it all down on the line for the rest of the world…. Then they turned out to be completely selfish and I fell right on my face. You did enough gloating already. I got it. I was stupid. Now leave me alone.”

It took an effort to sound like he didn’t care. Sure, there was anger, but Tony wouldn’t show him how little was there left of him. Bad enough that Loki had witnessed all of it.

“The fundamental error in your thinking is quite simple. There is nothing more important than yourself. Nobody is going to look out for you but yourself. The other one, although being a dim-witted moron, realised that.”

“Shut up. That is just not true.” Not even in his worst moment Tony would accept that to be true. Still his whisper sounded faint and tired, because he was lying here, battered and bruised, in a hospital bed. Proving Loki’s point.

Maybe Loki was indeed feeling gracious since he didn’t press any further and silence settled in between them. So Tony wouldn’t have anything to think about he focused on Loki’s breathing. Calm and regular. Reliable. When they weren’t talking Loki’s presence was almost comforting.

“I could kill them.”

Tony could pretend that he didn’t hear him.

“Just like you could have. Do you think I don’t know? That I am as foolish as them? That I don’t see the wasted potential? They went after you with all they had. You did not. Which is such a shame. I would have laughed to see the look on the pretender’s face.”

"What are you even talking about?"

“The good guy. Standing next to his corpse would grant me immense satisfaction.” A slight edge in his voice and Tony needed to do something with his hands. He twisted them in the blanket, fighting with himself to remain silent.

“Do you want to kill him for me?”

Despite the darkness Tony could perfectly make out that condescending grin. How foolish of him. Loki had just pointed out that everybody was in it for themselves. “I want to kill them because they’re a waste of space. Because I despise their pretence. Telling everybody that they are just like anybody else when they aren’t. Pretending that they would walk over shards of glass to save a random life when nothing could be further from the truth. Pretending that they are so much better when you or me could crush them with one hand. They should be crushed. I’ve told you so.”

“Loki, stop it. We’re not going over this again.”

“All flesh and blood. Even one single bullet in their heads would suffice.”

“I am also just flesh and blood.”

“But you are not stupid!” Smugness turning into anger within a second. Loki was sizzling, leaning towards him and Tony found that he could deal with a sudden outburst of rage. Everything was better than indifference. Than a half-hearted ‘I knew. I’m sorry’. “You are not pretending! You are the only one in this bunch of failures who does not try to make himself look smaller to fit expectations. You are not smiling shyly although you think you are so much better than everybody else. You are the only who is worth something and they stepped on you. Leaving you to do die, because they know that you aren’t pretending. That you are so much better. It’s a disgrace.”

The images flashed and Tony could taste the cold of Siberia. The grasp of an iron hand. “Stop what you are trying to do right now.”

“That’s what you chose? Being betrayed, beaten and left for dead?”

“Stop trying to manipulate me!”

Loki was laughing, shaking his head. “Manipulating? If I were trying to manipulate you, I would be doing this…”

Right in front of his eyes Loki’s features turned into Steve’s and Tony had nowhere to go, wanting to run. “Don’t.”

The blonde hair turned back to black and Loki stood up from the bed, turning his back to Tony. “I did as you asked. I left and I enjoyed watching your castle crumble, since you were too blind to see that you built it upon sand. Now there is no more reason to stall… I will strangle the redhead, wearing the Captain’s or Agent Barton’s face, so she will die feeling betrayed. A fitting death for a traitor. Barton doesn’t matter. A dagger into his heart should be enough. I don’t care about the fly or the ant. Just two more pretenders. They are nothing. Perhaps I’ll simply break their necks. The girl… Oh, she is going to be fun. I’m going to play with her. Pretends to be a magic user, having no idea what she is doing. Not having been taught by anybody… I will show her what real illusions are.”

Tony couldn’t find the power inside of them to tell Loki to stop. That he didn’t want to hear him casually talking about murder. Murdering the people he had thought his friends. Then Loki was looking at him again, smiling so real and genuinely. “Having her being persecuted by the people that she killed. Seeing her brother die over and over again. Hearing him accuse her of being responsible. How tempting. I might be able to find enough enjoyment to do that for weeks. Maybe I don’t even need to kill her. I will just drive her into madness.”

“Loki…”

“Saving the best simply for last. I will not lay a single finger onto the great pretender. Oh no, I will force him to stop pretending. Confront him with what he really is. I will release the mindless beast he is so adamantly trying to protect.”

Shaking his head Tony closed his eyes, trying to push him out. All of them. “Loki, don’t.”

“Longing.”

“I don’t want to hear this.”

“Rusted. Seventeen.”

“I don’t…”

“Dawn. Stove.”

“Shut up!”

“Nine.”

“You can’t simply…”

“Kind-hearted.”

“You have no right to do that.”

“Homecoming. One.”

“Loki!”

“Freight car.”

Unbothered by Tony’s protest Loki continued. “The beast can rampage as much as he pleases to. If the good guy doesn’t bring himself to stop him from killing every single soul that crosses his way… I will order the beast to kill the pretender. Now look at into my eyes and tell me that this isn’t exactly what you were thinking about, what you were wishing for when you saw me in Siberia. You thought you were dying and that’s when you finally allowed yourself to be who you could be.”

Green eyes were staring at him, Tony felt them on his skin, forcing him to eventually meet his gaze. Here they were again. In a completely different place and yet it was the same conversation they’ve had one year ago.

Back then Tony had been euphoric, full of hope, idealistic about what the Avengers would be able to do. What Steve might be able to do. That he would bring out the best in all of them. So he had told Loki to leave, to never come back again.

Now Tony was here, broken, disillusioned, alone and Loki had come back. Reaching out for him again, not because he was a good person or because he cared for Tony. No, Loki only cared about potential and he saw that in Tony.

It would be easy to give into him. It would also have been easy to not hold back. To sell them all out or to use those bullets Loki had been talking about.

But Tony couldn’t do it. Looking at Loki he slowly voiced a few simple words which should be enough. “I don’t kill people.”

Unimpressed Loki crossed his arms in front of his chest. “They do.”

Shrugging softly Tony let his head fall back against the backrest of his bed. “So maybe I am the only good guy left then…”

Loki uttered a sound that could be a mixture between a huff and a laugh. Everything could be expected from him. Another fit of rage. Manic laughter. A quick and deadly attack. “It’s such a waste…”

Not another word, not another glance. Loki merely became one with darkness surrounding him, leaving Tony alone with nothing but his thoughts and a little seed of doubt.


End file.
